Listening to her, you immediately become aware of the soft smoothness of her voice, and the effortless, sultry ways in which she weaves the melodies of her songs. Some she sings in that unhurried way of a Billie Holiday, mixed with that smoothe jazzy style of a Diana Krall. A little bit of Macy Gray (without the edge) comes through as well, but make no mistake, EVERYTHING is Norah Jones. In other words, this young woman has all the qualities of some of music's best female vocal artists in the type of songs she sings.Her songs carry the full range of a little Country, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and lullabies (if you doubt me, just listen to her "I've Got To See You Again"). They are pure comfort and relaxation; the kind you feel good to just let wash away the hustle and bustle of a hectic day. The kind your soul seeks out for calm. The alternative to headache medicine.Although her songs can be listened to for the sheer joy and pleasure of them, they could also serve as background music that speaks peacefully and non-threateningly to your surroundings, and you'll know they will have started working their MAGIC on you, when unconsciously you find yourself singing or humming their melodies. Bobbing and swaying your head slightly is also confirmation.Babies, likewise, will find it easy to fall asleep from the gentle and soothing sound of her voice. It'll be a natural lullaby for them.Considering this artist is only in her early twenties, and has already made her singing debut with such a positive and graceful entrance, she has only given us a lovable sample of what's to come. Like a good wine, she will only get BETTER as she matures!!!

First of all, C++ is a very difficult language to learn, and even moreso to master. It requires years of constant practice and learning to reach near the mountain top, and Stroustrup's book, "The C++ Programming Language" is among the most difficult to read and understand (ESPECIALLY for those just starting out).After reading and using other authors' books that were kinder and gentler in helping me understand the language, from time to time I would refer back to Stroustrup's book to see how much of it I could grasp. Therefore, when this book "C++ Solutions: Companion to the C++ Programming Language (3rd Edition)" came out, I snatched it up within a heart beat, seeing how it presented itself as an answer book to the questions in Stroustrup's work. "At last," I thought, "an answer book to one of the most difficult books on the language."BULL!!It wasn't until I got home and really began going through this "so called" answer book, that I discovered a LOT of the questions Stroustrup asked in his book, WERE NOT ANSWERED AT ALL in this book. To be more precise, about HALF the questions (and sometimes less) in Stroustrup's book went UNANSWERED in this author's book, and to make matters worst, it was the more difficult half that were NOT answered.Many times the author would simply give "Hints" as his answers, and nothing more, and even with that, it would amount to less than half the number of questions Stroustrup may have asked. Take 'Chapter 10' as an example, Stroustrup gave 20 questions there to be answered; the author answered just 8. What kind of help is that? What kind of help can someone expect to receive from such a book, especially one that advertised itself as an answer book? And this sort of practice repeated itself in each and every chapter; no exception.Turn the table around and look at matters from a different perspective. Suppose there was no answer book and you had to answer Stroustrup's questions yourself, would you consider answering 8 out of a total of 20, sufficient to demonstrate your understanding and grasp of the language? Why did Stroustrup ask 20 questions in the first place? He asked 20 questions for you to give 20 answers; that's why. And after you've spent your money on a book that advertised itself as an answer book that only answered half the number of questions (the easier half), figure for yourself if you got a good deal.

This book is NOT for the beginner!!! In that respect, its title is misleading to intimate that it should be a "first time" type book. IT IS NOT!!This book is for the intermediate to advanced C++ application developer. To really get the maximum benefit from reading it, will first require that you have a good basic knowledge of the language under your belt. With that, you are then poised to reap the best this book has to offer, and it DOES offer a LOT. It delves deeper into the syntactical construct and nuances of the language (which is why it's not for beginners), technically explaining (and demonstrating) a wider aspect of the language's purpose and implementation. This means (for example), even though you might have known what the use of the "const" keyword is for, Lippman makes sure the reader understands that it's not just to prevent an object or a function it qualifies, from getting modified, but that ANY ATTEMPT to have even a pointer to a non-constant object, address a constant object, will result in a compile-time error. This is just an example of where he takes you behind the scene. In other words, he realizes you already know what's happening up front, and now he's revealing additional refinements of the language regarding that specific part of it.Sure, there are some errors in the book, both typographical and technical, but Lippman is not spoon-feeding anybody, and it's precisely because you're not a beginner why you'll most likely discover the errors if not just by reading, then certainly by experimenting with the many examples he has given. If you are a serious developer, then you'll certainly want to put what he's saying to the test, which is how your knowledge will grow and expand. By all means, this does not excuse him from such errors, but taken in context, they are NOT a reflection of any limitation on his part to the language, but more due to other constraining details that goes into writing a book of this magnitude.Repeatedly, one can observe the author was trying to cover as much ground about the language (in depth) without leaving any stone unturned, which sometimes makes what he's saying, totally incoherent. It is only when you stop to digest, or slow down your intake of what you're reading, that upon analysis you are forced to parse his statements in order to assimilate the meaning. Take this as an example. In Section 7.9 where he's explaining "Pointers to Functions" (clearly this is NOT something for beginners), he breaks down the entire concept into several subsections (just to give you an example of how much ground there is to cover on this topic) beginning with "The 'type' of a Pointer to Function," then on to "Initialization and Assignment," followed by "Arrays of Pointers to Functions", until he reaches "Parameters and Return Types" where (by this time) the reader will have either grasped the gist of the subject matter, or will have to reread the foregoing sections, because now Lippman is taking the reader to a higher level. He's telling the reader that "Because a function parameter can be a 'pointer to function', we can pass a 'pointer to function' as an argument." BUT, he cautions, "A function parameter never has a function type. Instead, a parameter of function type is automatically converted to the type, 'pointer to function'."Clearly, these are NOT concepts meant to be served to the beginner.Personally, I have read this book so thoroughly, I can say there is hardly anything in the Language Standards that Lippman did not try to cover (perhaps some more than others), and nowhere is this more obvious than in the sheer size of the book; over 1200 pages. Where else can you find a source pertaining to the rules, syntax, constructs and explanation of the language, other than the actual Standard itself, and to read that (even for an advanced practitioner like myself) would be a torture of unimaginable proportion.If you are at the point in your understanding of the language where you are ready to advance to the next higher level, you will need to read (and reference) this book in order to pack down more solidly your knowledge of C++. After you've done that, then you're ready for those other books that will sharpen your skills and expertise (even more), like "Effective C++" and "More Effective C++" by Scott Meyers.Without that SOLID grasp from reading and understanding Lippman, other books like those from Meyers' will be less "Effective."

This IS the definitive performance of Mozart's symphonies!! The music is clear, clean and very crisp, ... absolutely magnificent!! The orchestral timing are discernibly perfect and utterly precise (factors which determine the distinctly robust sound of the performing instrument).This undoubtedly has to be one of Sir Neville's best conducting effort, and the orchestra's best performance. They played as though they were playing for GOD.Sublime perfection!!Like Sir Neville, Josef Krips has demonstrated what it means being a consummate maestro. They set the standard for others to aspire.Mozart!! What can one say about genius! His music says it all. It will turn any bad day into a good one!

A good book, in that it covers a lot of ground, but equally a very verbose one. The author would take an entire paragraph to convey a point, and then (just to make certain that the point was fully conveyed), would use another (or several more paragraphs) to paraphrase the same point.As a seasoned programmer in C++, I read this book believing I would gain finer points of the language and exquisite uses of it (e.g. idioms). An "Engineering Approach" lead me to believe that the author would get down and dirty into the nitty gritty of the compiler domain and code optimization. No such luck! This book is definitely for beginners who might find inculcation of concept, useful.My feeling is that this book could have easily been half the size it is, if much of its verbosity was cut out, which means a lot less time would be needed to cover the core of C++.It may have some benefits for intermediate users (if they don't mind doing a lot of reading), but virtually nothing for experienced and advanced programmers of C++.